F1 paddock still worried about leaving Shanghai

As the European air chaos continues due to the Icelandic volcano cloud,
Lotus has booked its entire race team on flights to Malaysia.
With European airports throughout Europe still closed, the Formula One
circus in China is distinctly worried ...

As the European air chaos continues due to the Icelandic volcano cloud,
Lotus has booked its entire race team on flights to Malaysia.

With European airports throughout Europe still closed, the Formula One
circus in China is distinctly worried about how to get its staff, equipment
and cars back to base.

Lotus team members are the lucky ones: as employees of the AirAsia supremo
Tony Fernandes, they will all be holidaying in Kuala Lumpur to await the
rescheduling of European flights.

Many of the drivers have simply booked a few more days in their five-star
Shanghai hotels, aided by the race promoters who have been passing out
forms for extending Chinese visas.

"I am going to stay. Even if you can fly again (soon), no one knows when
you will get a seat," said Williams' Nico Hulkenberg.

Nico Rosberg is going to holiday in Thailand, Mark Webber to his native
Australia, and Bernie Ecclestone's private jet is flying to Bangkok on
Monday morning where he will "wait until I can get back to England".

Michael Schumacher, meanwhile, is cursing his decision to leave his own
plane in Europe, after using it for the trips to Bahrain, Australia and
Malaysia.

Even the seven time world champion is now at the mercy of the commercial
air industry.

The Times correspondent Kevin Eason is due to get married in the UK next
weekend, and some of his colleagues are looking into the Trans-Siberian
train.

Others are talking about flights to ports and trying to get onto boats,
like the Sauber team, who are investigating flights to Dubai, boats to
Marseille and buses back to Hinwil.

Red Bull's Christian Horner thought he had dodged the chaos with a clever
air route via Dubai, Rome and Glasgow, until it emerged that the Rome
airport is also closed.

The biggest concern is the F1 freight and - most importantly - the cars.
Most teams are planning big upgrades for Barcelona.

"The freight, I can't see coming back to the UK (before the Spanish
GP)," Eddie Jordan, who could not fly to China due to the situation, told
Reuters.

Said Horner: "Fortunately, we have three weeks until Spain", while
McLaren's Martin Whitmarsh is worried that some Barcelona developments
will not be possible unless the cars are returned to Europe within a week.

Like Jordan, Niki Lauda is another who could not get a flight to China this
weekend. An airline owner himself, the Austrian criticised the ongoing
decision to have airports closed.

"According to my engineers the (ash) particles are no longer a problem,"
he said in Vienna.